crack_van | The Diving Bell, R

Fandom: INCEPTION
Title: The Diving Bell
Pairing: Cobb/Saito
Length: 21,637
Author on LJ:

lmeden
Author Website: author's profile on AO3
Why this must be read: The author's note for this fic reads: This is the story I've always wanted to write for Inception. The first time I watched the movie I saw the glance that Dom and Saito exchanged when they woke on the plane and I thought, "What happened? How did Dom find him? What sort of odyssey was it?" This was exactly my thought process after my first movie-watch, and I'm so glad that there are several Cobb/Saito fics out there that tackle the question of their relationship during and after limbo. This fic drew me in with its fascinating take on Saito, who lives an entire lifetime in limbo while Cobb searches for him, along with fabulous imagery, elements from Japanese folklore and mythology, and gorgeous accompanying artwork.

The waves are soft, nearly soundless. The water is green and blue and shades of all sorts of cold things: the silver shine off the back of a fish, the quick glimmer of iridescence in the ocean’s darkest depths. This beach is unreal. It is fantastic in the basest sense, built of dreams and imagination and hope.
It has not come from his own mind, Dom is sure of that. He is too old, too experienced to imagine something like this and make it real. For years, all he has been able to create are mimicries of reality.
He looks back at the boy, his gaze intense and wide, his lips parted with enthusiasm. The boy. This must be his dream, his youthful, flamboyant imaginings. He’s the only other living thing here, it must be him.
But who is he? Limbo can only be shaped by a living dreamer and the only dreamers in Limbo are Dom…and Saito. He watches the boy slow and stop, bend to pick something up. This boy must be Saito, but how?
In Dom’s experience, dreamers always remain themselves (except forgers, of course, but Dom generally avoids thinking about the defiant ball of contradictions that makes Eames who he is). Dom has always been his own age, wearing his own clothes and with his own face – even Ariadne, young, unsure, and inexperienced, remained herself when she fell into Limbo.
Is Saito so lost that he has forgotten even himself?
This is it! the boy exclaims, breaking into Dom’s thoughts. See this shell, it comes from the darkest depths of the sea, you can tell by the color.
Dom leans down and takes the shell from him, admiring the violet sheen it carries, despite the bleaching light.
And this one floated on the very tops of the waves to get here, you know, but when you hold both together…
The boy reaches out, holding a shell almost pure gold and quite translucent, and nestles it against the one in Dom’s hand. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle, creating one large, round shell, shimmering with the most unexpected colors. Dom’s breath catches and he looks up. The boy’s gaze is pleased.
Amazing, right? You know, it proves that sea witches and mermaids exist, if there’s this kind of magic hiding in the water, just waiting for us to put the clues together.
Dom cups the shells in his hands, holding them together and whole, glimmering.
And one day, this will all be mine, the boy says, gesturing out towards the water.
“What do you mean?”
Oh, well, I’m going to be a businessman, father says, and well, the boy’s nose wrinkles with distaste and despite his fascination with the story, Dom smiles, if I have to, I’m going to be the very best and that means that I’ll own the entire world, even the seas and the mermaids and the witches. And I won’t hurt them! No, all the stories have the mermaids evil and defeated by a hero but I’m not a hero, I just want to watch them, and maybe say hello.
He turns, and looks up at Dom’s smiling face. Dom’s heart feels very full, not with pain but with happiness, it is the first time in a very long while that he has felt this way, and this is Saito blinking up at him, talking about mermaids and ruling the world. It’s crazy, impossible, and breathtaking.

The Diving Bell